Indian rupee gets a symbol, joins elite currency club

The Indian rupee will soon have a unique symbol — a blend of the Devanagri 'Ra' and Roman 'R' — joining elite currencies like the US dollar, euro, British pound and Japanese yen in having a distinct identity.

The new symbol, designed by Bombay IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar, was approved by the cabinet today — reflecting that the Indian currency, backed by an over-trillion dollar economy, was finally making its presence felt on the international scene.

"It's a big statement on the Indian currency... The symbol would lend a distinctive character and identity to the currency and further highlight the strength and global face of the Indian economy," Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

Though the symbol will not be printed or embossed on currency notes or coins, it would be included in the 'Unicode Standard' and major scripts of the world to ensure that it is easily displayed and printed in the electronic and print media.

Among currencies with distinctive identities, only the pound sterling has its symbol printed on the notes.

Unicode is an international standard that allows text data to be interchanged globally without conflict. After incorporation in the global and Indian codes, the symbol would be used by all individuals and entities within and outside the country.

The symbol will be adopted in a span of six months in the country, and within 18 to 24 months globally, Soni said, adding that it will feature on computer keyboards and softwares for worldwide use.

Soni said that the symbol, which reflects the Indian ethos and culture, would help distinguish the currency from the rupee or rupiah of other countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Besides this, state governments would be asked to proactively promote the use of the new symbol, she added.

Kumar's entry was chosen from 3,000 designs competing for the currency symbol. He will get an award of Rs 2.5 lakh.

"It is a perfect blend of Indian and Roman letters — capital 'R' and Devanagri 'Ra' which represents rupaiah, to appeal to international and Indian audiences... My design is based on the tricolour, with two lines at the top and white space in between," a visibly-happy Kumar said.

The jury, which had sent the five short-listed entries for the cabinet's approval, was headed by a Reserve Bank Deputy Governor.

Salary: Nokia India staff on strike

Production at Nokia's factory in India has been hit after workers began a strike demanding higher pay, the Business Standard reported.

The newspaper said the strike began on Tuesday after employees' talks with the management failed. The facility, near Chennai in south India, caters to local and export markets and employs 8,000 people.

Nokia did not comment on the strike and the reported production loss, but said in a statement the company on Monday discussed a long-term wage settlement with the employees through their trade union.

The company said the wage deal offered to employees was among the highest in the region in similar industries.

Nokia, the world's top cell phone maker, had said in April mobile handset production at the India plant had crossed 350 million handsets over its four years of operations.

World champions Spain back on top of FIFA rankings

ZURICH: Spain returned to the top of the world football rankings issued on Wednesday by the ruling body FIFA in the wake of their first World Cup triumph.

FIFA World Rankings

But the 2006 winners Italy crashed out of the top-10 and the runners up from four ago, France, even out of the top-20 after both went out in the group stage of the tournament in South Africa.

Spain, who had lost first place to Brazil a few months ago, returned to the top with 1,883 points with the World Cup triumph Sunday, 1-0 over the Netherlands. The Dutch moved from fourth to second with 1,659 points while quarterfinal victims Brazil dropped from first to third with 1,536 points.

Semifinalists Uruguay shot from 16th to a ranking best sixth place, Egypt moved from 14th to ninth even though they did not play at the World Cup, and Chile climbed from 18th to 10th.

The other top 10 teams are Germany (fourth), Argentina (fifth), England (seventh) and Portugal (eighth).

On the other side of the spectrum, Italy plunged from sixth to 11th, non-World Cup team Croatia dropped from 10th to 15th place and France even crashed 12 places, from ninth to 21st.

Indian consumers most eco-friendly, finds global survey

he rest of the world may well turn green with envy. India has the most sustainable consumption pattern, says a 17-nation survey on consumer behaviour and environmental impact.

Over the past two years, Indians have shown increasing environmentally friendly behaviour, the study, released on Thursday, shows. India scored 62.6 points in the overall green index to retain top rank. Brazil (58) came second, followed by China (57.3). The US, among the most energy-guzzling countries in the world, finished last with a score of 45.

The survey, Greendex 2010: Consumer Choice and the Environment — A World Tracking Survey, was carried out by National Geographic Society and international polling firm GlobeScan. First conducted in 2008, it is a comprehensive measure of consumer behaviour in 65 areas relating to housing, transportation, food and consumer goods.

Greendex 2010 ranked average consumers according to environmental impacts of their consumption patterns. It measured transportation patterns, household energy and resource use, consumption of food and everyday consumer goods.

Inflation moves higher to 10.55% in June

Wholesale price-based inflation inched higher to 10.55% in June, owing to the pass through effect of the June 25 hike in prices of petroleum products.

The WPI numbers were provisionally 10.16% in May, while it was revised upwards to 11.23% for April from the provisional 9.59%.

However, the double digit inflation in June could be partly attributed to low base in the year-ago period when the inflation was at -1.01%, which means even a small increase now would seem large.

In June, the fuel index rose by 1.7%, due to higher prices of kerosene (9%), electricity (4%), petrol (2%) and Liquefied petroleum gas (3%).

The country's chief economic adviser Kaushik Basu had last month said he expects the hike in fuel prices to lead to one percentage point rise in inflation.

The prices of food articles rose marginally by 0.20% during June as prices of cereals, rice and wheat declined on a month-on-month basis.

Among manufactured items, wood products prices rose by 5.4% due to higher rates of plywood commercial planks.

Food inflation remained in double digits at 12.63% for the week ended June 19, having moderated from over 16% level in the preceding eight weeks.

Among primary (raw) food items, urad turned costlier by 9%, meat by 7%, fish-marine (5%) and spices (3%).

The double digit inflation may put pressure on RBI to raise key policy rates to tighten money supply at its July 27 monetary policy review. The central bank has already raised rates thrice this year to combat high inflation.

Analysts said July figures are likely to be higher, as the hike in the prices of petroleum products would be reflected fully.

The government on June 25 had hiked petrol prices by Rs 3.5 a litre while deregulating its pricing, and diesel by Rs 2 a litre. Besides, it raised prices of LPG (cooking gas) by Rs 35 a cylinder and kerosene by Rs 3 a litre.

State firms plan monthly petrol rate review

NEW DELHI: State firms will review petrol prices every month but rates are unlikely to change in July if international prices and the rupee's exchange rate remains at current levels, a company official said.

India freed petrol prices from government controls and raised prices of diesel, cooking gas and kerosene on June 25, giving state-run firms like Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd the freedom to fix retail prices for petrol.

State firms will review petrol prices every month but there would be no fixed date to change prices, S V Narasimhan, director for finance at India Oil Corp told reporters after a meeting between top officials of state-run firms and the oil ministry on Wednesday.

He said all state firms would sell petrol at the same rate for three months but this may change depending on the competition in the market.

"(Whether) the mechanism has to be different or not will be decided after three months based on competition. There is no fixed date for revision," he said.

State firms face competition from Reliance Industries Ltd and Essar Oil. These firms had captured about 15 per cent of the market five years ago but they lost out as state firms started selling subsidised fuel when global prices soared.

He said prices were unlikely to change this month if the current exchange rate of the rupee and international prices remain at current levels.

"There is no need to change the petrol prices," he said.